Lies and Chaos - Loki
by PhaedraOakenshield
Summary: It's been months since the incident. Lydia Coulson works for S.H.I.E.L.te one night while they are running test, the cube starts to operate on it's own and opens a doorway into their world and brings back someone who is from a whole other realm. Lydia finds herself face to face with the god of Mischief who promises her nothing but lies and chaos.
1. Chapter 1

_Beep, beep, beep._ Lydia's eyes bolted awake at the horrid sound, breathing heavily. She instantly rubbed her face, feeling the sweat dripping down her forehead. It happened again. She ended up dreaming of that place again. The place she was taken to and tortured for weeks to the point that Lydia thought she was never going to make it out alive.

Lydia had only just started working for S.H.I.E.L.D. two months before she was taken. Her head laid on her pillow as she stared at the ceiling and those terrifying weeks replayed in her mind.

**My captors wanted information on missions S.H.I.E.L.D. handled, weapons and any other information they could get out of me. I never budged. They locked me in a filthy cage with no light and starved me for a week, thinking that would change my mind. The second week I was tied to a chair with a pipe leaking water on my head, making me sick and weak to even attempt to fight my way out. And then from there it just got worse. They found numerous different sized blades to cut into my skin, making me bleed out slowly and well the rest of it is to gruesome to tell.**

Lydia snapped out of her nightmare when she heard her alarm clock still making that god awful beeping noise and slammed her hand down on the button for it to stop. It was 5:30 am. Lydia sat up and exhaled a breath to relax and reminded herself that she wasn't there still. That she was safe. The girl tossed the blanket off of her and sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the floor until the terrifying images were no long in her head and finally she lifted herself off the bed and headed for the bathroom.

She turned the shower on and took off her black tank top and pajama shorts and climbed into the shower, wondering when the day would come when she would feel normal again.

Thirty minutes went by and she was finally out. Putting on her robe, she grimaced at the sight of her scars that covered her body. Their was a lot she didn't tell to her dad or the others for that matter about what happened to her during the time she was held hostage. Lydia then wrapped her wet black hair in a towel and left the bathroom, to her room.

She went over to her dresser to find something to wear when her phone started ringing on her bed. "Who would be phoning me, this early?" Lydia mumbled to herself and walked over to the side of the bed and glanced at the caller I.D. before picking up the phone. She couldn't say she was surprised to see the name that filled the screen and pressed the button to answer it and held the phone up to her ear.

"Hello, Director Fury." Lydia answered.

"Hello, Lydia. It's been a long time." Fury stated.

"Yes, it has." She agreed, trying to act normal, which was pointless. Director Fury is a good friend of her dad's and has known her, her entire life.

"How are you?" He asked next.

"I'm good. I'm really good." The girl replied, nodding her head at the same time, like she was actually trying to convince herself too of this.

"Are you?"

It was silent on both ends for a long time. She closed her eyes, and sighed under her breath. The truth was, she wasn't really sure if she was. She would be lying if she didn't say what happened to her month's ago had left her feeling on edge. It's been eight months since the incident and she barely felt brave enough to leave out the front door most days. But maybe going back to work was the best thing for her. " I'm okay, each day goes by a little easier then the last." She told him truthfully, trying to sound calm. "Why are you calling, Fury?" Lydia knew the real reason he called wasn't because he was concerned with how she was holding up after everything. She was positive her worried dad has been keeping him update on all that.

"We need you to come back to work, Lydia. We need you to assist Astrophysicist, Erik Selvig. Only if your ready." Fury pressed, and waited for her to give an answer.

Lydia only thought about it for less then a second. "I'm ready. When do you want me to start?"

"Right away. Your dad will be there within the hour to bring you here. I will brief you on everything when you get here." Fury explained to her.

The both of them hung up and she dropped the phone back on her bed and went back over to the dresser to find something to wear. Once she was dressed she went back into the bathroom and grabbed her makeup to put on so she wouldn't look like she had been living like a zombie the entire time. It took about ten minutes and she was done. She looked at her reflection. You could no longer see her scars but it didn't matter how much she covered them up with makeup or her long sleeve sweaters, she would have them for the rest of her life.

The young girl sat at the edge of her bed, waiting for a text from her dad to inform her, he was here, but she hadn't received anything. She got up from the bed and started pacing. Something she often did whenever she started to get antsy. Her phone was sitting on the bed and it made a ringing sound that caused her to jump in her spot._ I hadn't even made out of my door and I was already losing it._ She cursed at herself. Lydia rolled her eyes at herself and checked her phone. It was her dad, informing her, he was here at the apartment. She grabbed her bag and few other things she would need, and put her sunglasses on and left out the door and locked it. She made haste down the stairs and left out the main door and saw her dad waiting by the black Suburban.

"Hi dad." Lydia greeted as she walked up to him and they hugged.

"Are you sure your ready to come back?" He asked immediately. Her dad was always such a worrier. " It's okay if your not. Fury will understand. What you went through is a-,"

She put up her hand for him to stop. Lydia knew what he was doing. He was hoping to convince her that she should take more time. She didn't need more time. What happened to her would never truly leave her and she couldn't stop living her life because of it. " Dad, I'm sure. I need to go back to work. I have to work. I can't keep hiding in my apartment thinking every time I step out my door, I'm gonna get taken off the street or something." She pressed in slight annoyance and quickly gave a small smile that she didn't want to talk about it anymore.

"Okay." He said calmly. The two of them got into the SUV and headed for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters.


	2. Chapter 2

The drive to headquarters was quiet. Lydia was too overwhelmed with her own thoughts to have any sort of conversation with her father. She wondered what Fury had gotten his hands on now, that he would ask for her to return to work promptly. Coulson would ever so often glance to side at his daughter about to say something but didn't know which question to ask first, making the long drive even more awkward then it already was. The vehicle came to a stop in front of a building. Dozens of Shield Agents, were coming in and out of the place.

Lydia unbuckled her seat belt and opened the SUV door. Closing the door behind her she stopped at the front of the vehicle, staring at the building as flashbacks invaded her mind. This was where it all happened. Where she was taken from and kept for several weeks. She would never forget what the man had done to her and her hand instantly went to her throat. Lydia could still remember like it was yesterday how rough his hands felt when they clamped around her neck.

"...Lydia?...Lydia!"

The dark haired girl snapped out of her thoughts and looked at her dad who was watching her with worried eyes. " Lydia, are you sure your ready to come back. If you need to talk to someone about what happened-," Coulson suggested only to stop mid-sentence.

"Dad. I'm fine - really." Lydia insisted, quickly putting on a smile and started climbing the stairs before her dad could say anything more. Coulson let a small sigh escape his lips. He knew his daughter wasn't telling him something and he was a hundred percent sure it had to do with what had happened to her when she was taken.

Once inside the building, Lydia made her way down the hall seeing familiar faces passing her along the way, but that wasn't all she noticed. Her fellow coworkers were looking at her with a mix of feeling sorry, guilt, pity among other things. Lydia immediately put her head down and walked faster down the hall. This was the last thing she wanted to happen when she came back to work. She didn't want people feeling sorry for her for what she went through.

"Ah, Lydia. Welcome back its so good to see you again." Director Fury said as he came into view from across the hall.

"Uncle Nick!" Lydia greeted back as the two of them hugged. Once they pulled away from each other, Fury decided this wasn't the time for pleasantries. There was a lot of work that needed to be done. Fury led Lydia the way to the lab where she would begin assisting Erik Selvig.

The Director then handed her a file, containing everything they had on an object called the Tesseract. Lydia allowed her mind to absorb the information she read from the file. Certain words catching her attention like _**HYDRA**_, **Energy source** and **Specialized weapons. **_What was Fury planning on using the Tesseract for? _Lydia wondered.

The young woman closed the file and smiled when she heard the sound of two familiar voices. "Clint! Nat!" Lydia called out. The two agents turned around to see Lydia walking up to them them. Clint and Natasha were like the big brother and sister she never had. Lydia hugged the other woman, Nat couldn't stay very long as she had her own mission to prepare for and Barton was being assigned to assist the situation with the Tesseract. Lydia hugged Barton next who instantly teased her, wondering if she had any boyfriends he should know about. Encase they needed a good talking to.

Sadly, Lydia hadn't had a boyfriend since everything happened months ago. It was actually the reason why she broke up with her boyfriend, Paul. It wasn't him. It was her. What she went through, changed her in so many ways. She just needed time. Time to find herself again...

It's been almost a year and Lydia still didn't know. About 4 months ago she was walking down Broadway street, when she saw Paul, she was about to approach him, only he wasn't alone. He was with another woman, holding hands and kissed her on the lips. Lydia couldn't deny that it hurt when she saw him with her, but she could hardly blame him. She was the one who pushed him away first. It just hurt her even more that he didn't try harder, he basically agreed to give her space and moved on completely with someone else.

Lydia was so deep in thought about that day, that she didn't snap out of it until she heard Director Fury's voice.

"Well Lydia, shall we carry on? You will have plenty of time to catch up with everyone." Fury insisted. The young woman nodded and the three of them continued down the hall that eventually led to some stairs and they made their way down them.

"Doctor Selvig," Fury called as they came into the lab. Their was all types of expensive equipment setup everywhere. Lydia looked around to see at-least a dozen or so other lab assistants working and then she saw it. The glowing blue cube known as the Tesseract. An older man approached the three of them. " Erik Selvig, meet Lydia Coulson," The Director introduced.

Erik and Lydia shook hands. " So this is the new assistant." Erik implied. " I assume you have been briefed on everything we know so far about the Tesseract?"

Lydia nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Good, because we have a lot of work ahead of us." The doctor stated.

"Then I guess we better get started." Lydia declared grabbing her lab coat and followed behind Erik Selvig to do what she did best.


	3. Chapter 3

For the next couple of days Lydia dived into work. Using every possible distraction she could find to help her to not think about what happened to her. Erik Selvig kept her busy through most of the day, running tests on computers since they hadn't been cleared by NASA to take any actual test on the Tesseract itself. She would then document their findings, trying to figure out how the cube's energy worked and how they could possibly use it for their benefit. Lydia had thought that once she was back at work, things would start to be like how they were before, but that wasn't the case...

A week had gone by since she returned to work and people were still looking at her the same way they did the day she was found. No one really knew what to say to her. They didn't know if they should ask her '_How she was doing?_', or '_If she thought it was too soon coming back to work?_'. The truth was, Lydia hated the way everyone was looking at her with the 'I'm so sorry' look, even her dad couldn't act normal around her. It was almost like him and everyone else were waiting for her to break or worse. At least Selvig didn't act like he had to walk on eggshells around her when they worked, and she was thankful for that.

Lydia wished more then anything that she had someone to talk to about the awful things that happened to her. About two weeks after the incident she tried seeing a counselor, but even that had little effect. It didn't matter what the lady said to convince her what she felt was completely normal given what she had been through and that she wasn't alone in all this. The truth was Lydia felt more alone then ever. At one point she thought about telling Romanoff, just so she had someone else to talk about all this to, but she couldn't even bring herself to trust her. Natasha was so busy with missions, that she was never around long enough and before joining S.H.I.E.L.D. she was used to doing all sorts of things to get information from people, including torturing! She would never fully understand what she went through. Then their was Clint Barton, as much as she loved him like a brother, she never felt comfortable enough to tell him the awful things that had happened to her, besides the facts that were on file of her kidnapping, but of course Lydia hadn't revealed everything when she was questioned after being found, their was just some things she didn't want anyone to know - including her dad.

Another week had gone by and then another and things seemed like they were getting better. Her colleagues were starting to act normal around her again, like she had never been gone, but even Lydia was beginning to have a hard time keeping up the "i'm okay" role. At first it was only happening at night when she would have flashbacks in the middle of the night when she was held hostage, but now the flashbacks were beginning to happen in the middle of the day, when they were running simulations and she would end up leaving in the middle of everything until the episode was over. Barton had been watching her like a hawk, probably at her father's request. since he couldn't always be around to keep an eye on her 24/7. She would find them once in awhile whispering to each other when they thought she wasn't listening and looking.

A few days prier Director Fury had left to deal with the higher authorities of S.H.I.E.L.D. Which in a way she was glad he wasn't around as much either. If Fury and her father had witnessed her episodes she was having they probably would have sent her home and that was the last thing Lydia wanted. This job was the only thing she had left keeping her somewhat sane.

It was later in the afternoon. Lydia and Doctor Selvig were heading back towards the lab, walking through the doors they stopped dead in their tracks. The Tesseract was active.

"I thought NASA hadn't cleared us yet to begin testing the Tesseracts energy yet." Lydia pressed.

"They haven't." Selvig clarified, walking over to one of the computers that was occupied with a NASA scientist. "Shut it down." Selvig ordered the scientist.

The scientist nodded and began pressing a few keys on the board to cut the power and the Cube was no longer active. It was only a few minutes later that the Cube was once again active. " Shut it down!" Selvig ordered more sternly this time.

"I'm trying sir, it's not working!" The scientist stated.

Lydia tried from her computer and she got nothing. The Tesseract's energy was evolving, overriding their power. The young woman stopped pressing buttons when she looked at her screen and saw the energy levels. " Doctor Selvig!" She called. "You might want to come look at this." Selvig, quickly came over to her side and looked at where she was pointing on the screen. The Doctor then looked up from the screen to the Cube and had a bad feeling about this. Agent Coulson came into the lab to check on things.

"What's happening?" Agent Coulson question.

" We need to evacuate this building," Selvig began. " if these energy levels continue to grow this place will blow." He finished as they all looked at the Cube.

Agent Coulson radios other Agents to begin evacuating the building and to get the Director back here as soon as possible. Agent's Scientists, and Personnel rush around the base frantically.

Not long after that a male voice over the intercom is heard. "**All personnel, evacuation order has been confirmed. Proceed to your designated vehicles... for all campus evacuation. This is not a drill. Emergency personnel proceed to your designated vehicles for all campus evacuation.**"

Four hours had gone by since the evacuation order. Everyone continued to rush around packing things to go. Lydia and Erik continued to monitor the energy levels and they were only growing.

"Talk to me, Doctor." Fury called walking over towards the two of them.

"Director." Selvig acknowledged, though this was no time for pleasantries.

"Is there anything we know for certain?" Fury asked, getting right to the point.

"The Tesseract is misbehaving." The Doctor began and Fury stopped and looked at Selvig like he had just told a bad joke.

"Is that supposed to be funny?" He questioned.

"No, it's not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, she's misbehaving."

"How soon can you pull the plug?" Fury asked next.

"She's an energy source. We turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level-" Selvig was cut off.

"We prepared for this, Doctor. Harnessing energy from space." Fury reminded, this was whole reason why he had been brought in so he could figure out a way to harness the energy from space safely.

"We don't have the harness. Our calculations are far from complete. She's throwing off interference, radiation. Nothing harmful, low levels of Gamma radiation." Selvig informed.

"That can be harmful. Where's agent Barton?" The Director asked.

"The hawk? Up in his nest, as usual" Selvig stated, looking up towards a balcony that overlooked the lab.

Fury pressed the button on his radio. "Agent Barton. Report." Clint zip-lined down a rope and walked over to the Director. " I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things." Fury pressed sternly this time as the two of them approached the Tesseract machine.

"I see better from a distance." Barton informed.

"Have you seen anything that might set this thing off?"

Barton shook his head. " No one's come and gone. And Selvig's clean. No contacts, no IM."

"Lydia." Fury called, waving the young woman over.

"Yes, sir." Lydia answered.

"What do you think? Do you think anyone from here in the lab could have done this?"

Lydia answered honestly. " If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't from this end."

Fury and Barton both looked at her slightly confused by the last part.

"At this end?" Fury repeated.

"Yeah. The Cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right? Doors open from both sides." The young woman explained. Before anything more was said the Cube sparks.

Doctor Selvig looked up from the side of the computer concerned and worried. "What's that?"

The Cube sparks again, causing Lydia, Fury and Barton to back away slowly. The Cube continues to spark more, and bigger each time when a beam of energy shoots across the room, which opens into a portal. There is an explosion and a cloud from the beam floats to the top of the chamber.

Lydia looked over at the platform to see a man kneeling and slowly looks up, grinning menacingly at them all.


	4. Chapter 4

Lydia couldn't take her eyes off this strange being that now stood a few yards in front of them. He wore the strangest clothing, like he just come from a theatre play or something like that. Several guards start to move in around him slowly.

The stranger stands up, gripping his hold on his weapon he has in hand and looks around. Fury takes a step forward, towards their new guest. " Sir, please put down the spear!" The Director ordered. The dark haired figure looked at the scepter in his hand, and with a quick move of his hand a stream of blue light shoots out from the tip right in the vicinity where Lydia, Fury and Barton were standing. The young woman shrieked as she was pushed out of the way by Barton, and she rolled across the floor before coming to a complete stop. Guards send bullets flying. The stranger then launched himself through the air at them, firing more energy and fighting them. Shooting scientists and agents.

Lydia was lying on the ground on her stomach. She slowly looked up when the chaos seemed to quit for now. The young woman looked around her and saw the scientist who had been one of the unlucky ones that got hit by the blast. Just then out of the corner of her eye she saw someone get up and moving fast towards this new foe and it was Barton only he wasn't quick enough and the other guy grabbed hold of his arm and surprisingly spoke.

"You have heart." The being said as he touched the tip of the spear to Barton's chest and eyes slowly turn an ice blue color and he was putting his weapon away. Lydia look around and saw one of the guards guns lying on the ground and grabbed it. By the time the young woman got to her feet, he was already placing the tip of his spear to another agent's chest.

"Put the spear down! Or I'll shoot!" Lydia ordered, pointing the gun at his head and he turned to look at her surprisingly calm with a smug smirk on his face, considering he had a gun waving around in his face. Little did Lydia know, bullets had no effect on him.

"You think you can threaten me, you stupid mortal!" Before Lydia could react, the dark haired man knocked the gun out her hands and had his one free hand clamped over her mouth and she immediately began struggling against him.

Fury watches from the side and pulls the Cube out from the machine as quietly as he can and places it in a briefcase and shuts it, then moves to leave. Lydia felt herself being turned to the side by her captor to face Fury. " Please don't. I still need that."

"Let the girl go. This doesn't have to get any messier. " Fury pressed in a calm manner.

"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else. I am Loki, of Asgard. And I am burdened with glorious purpose."

Selvig, hears this while he's checking the pulse of one of the NASA Scientist that got hit by the energy blast and gets up and slowly approaches. "Loki, brother of Thor?"

Loki turned slightly to the side to glare at the doctor for mentioning that name.

"We have no quarrel with your people." Fury stated, bringing Loki's attention back on him.

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot." Loki remarked.

"You planning to step on us?"

Lydia continued to struggle against Loki, still trying to loosen his grip on her, which he only found amusing the longer she kept at it while listening to both, Fury and him throwing metaphors back and forth at each other.

"I come with glad tidings," Loki began as he took a few steps forward, towards the Director. " of a world made free."

"Free from what?" Fury questioned.

"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart-" Loki turns and places the tip of his spear on Selvig's chest and Lydia watched as the Doctors eyes went the same ice blue color as Barton's did. "-you will know peace." Barton sees the Tesseract portal cloud, brewing and moves to Loki.

"Yeah, you say peace. I kinda think you mean the other thing." Fury indicated.

"Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us." Barton says to Loki.

"Like the pharaohs of old." Fury replied, not denying it all.

"He's right. The portal is collapsing in on itself. We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical." Selvig added. Lydia couldn't believe this. Why were they helping this awful person.

"Well then." Loki interjected. Lydia saw from the side Barton quickly drawing his gun and shoots Fury, causing Lydia to let out a muffled shriek, as the Director dropped the case and Barton picks it up. Loki grabs Lydia by the arm and starts pulling her alongside Selvig and the other agent as they leave the room.

"Let me go!" Lydia orders, trying to pull herself free from Loki, who continues to drag her beside him like nothing as they continued down the hall towards the vehicle garage.

"If you don't stop fighting me now. I will blow Barton's brains out before he has a chance to scream." Loki hissed for only her to hear and she stopped struggling against him, not wanting anything to happen to Clint. The five of them walk under the closing gate as Agent Hill comes out from the back room.

"We need these vehicles." Barton said to her as they walked by her. Loki had released his hold on Lydia, seeing if she was stupid enough to try warning the other agents to risk ending Barton's life. Hill didn't question it at first until she saw someone she didn't recognize with them.

"Who's that?" She asks, walking by slowly.

"Didn't tell me." Barton muttered standing by the driver side door of the truck.

"Hill!" Fury sounds over the radio. " Do you copy?" Hill stops in her tracks to listen. " Barton...has turned." He warned.

Hill look out!" Lydia shouted as Barton pulls out his weapon and shoots at the Agent who managed to roll behind a wall to take cover and managed to get a few rounds off. Lydia tried to make a run for it, only to feel one of Loki's cold hands grab hers and throws her into the bed of the truck and him climbing in after as the vehicle started to take off.

The young woman began flailing her arms when Loki came close to her and suddenly had handcuffs in his hand and cuffed one of her wrist and and cuffed the other part to one of the D rings that were mounted onto the truck bed.

Loki turns to see S.H.I.E.L.D cars chasing theirs and fires a beam from his spear, flipping the car over on its head blocking the pursuing vehicles and fleeing cars. Barton speeds up the truck because he's coming up on an intersection when all of sudden a black jeep shoots out in front of them, spinning around and Lydia feels vehicle jerk when the two vehicles hit. Barton starts shooting through his window and Hill returns fire - firing through the windshield.

Barton open fires at Hill one more time. Hill fires back, finally Barton gets the upper hand and pushes the jeep out of the way, and she quickly turns her vehicle around and continues to speed after them.

Suddenly the base begins to explode and crumble in on itself. Lydia sees the ceiling of the tunnel falling in, trapping Hill and the others as they exited the tunnel just seconds before the exit is covered by the fallen ceiling.

As they drive along, the young woman suddenly hears the sound of a chopper chasing them and opens fire at them, forcing Barton to drive frantically, onto a bumpy road, tossing Lydia around harshly. Lydia looks up from the side and can just see the chopper hovering above them, and notices Loki getting a better stance to take aim with his spear. Lydia managed through all the tossing in the truck to kick Loki in the leg, which did nothing of course but his aim a little off from where it was when he blast the helicopter hitting the back of it, instead of the middle and he turned to the side and slammed his fist into her head, knocking her out.


End file.
